Worm Kunoichi
by Mun-ninn
Summary: It's amazing to think that an object can change your life, or return you to it just when you needed the most, but then what is the reality? What happens when the illusion is better than reality? slowly the worms are knitting the destiny with silk tears (Strong Sakura, Sakura-centric)
1. Chapter 1

✿ **Chapter 1** **: pilot** ✿

She should have imagined it, really should. In fact, it's not as if she hadn't expected, it was evident since the exams began, and the truth was that she was weak compared to the rest, and was only now that she could understand it.

She wouldn't pass the Chūnin exams.

She was sure, knew even before filling the form to participate, and it was hard to admit it, but it was true, she was even worst than Naruto.

The taste of defeat was more bitter now she knew that the rest of her team was being trained for the next phase. It was true, she was proud of being able to stood up in front of Ino, and even had managed to get out of a jutsu that was considered impossible or in the best case, difficult to leave, but even so, she was sinking in her feelings in the chest. She felt disappointment and abandonment after everything happened, and now the sensation was much bigger than before. Now she felt more left out than never. Her sensei had gone with Sasuke and Naruto was being trained under a ninja who boasted of being very powerful, and though Kakashi didn't pay much attention to her anyway, she felt like a pariah.

Now she was alone, and really felt the true weight of her actions, worrying more about appearances than in the training had cost a big price. But she considered it unfair because Ino continued training with her team even though she hadn't qualified, Chōji was also part of that training, so did Kiba and Hinata, both hadn't qualified to move to the next stage and still continued to work with their sensei. She wanted to laugh, it was so ironical that her sensei spoke to them permanently about the importance of teamwork and now they were all apart and in their own ways, she never felt more alone, maybe when she didn't know Ino could compare to the feeling she had now she looked at them working together, maybe if she was part of a clan it could be different, but she wasn't.

With those thoughts, she took a walk to get away from all that. Every time she was walking, she saw people and teams of ninjas coming together and doing things together, she felt selfish and silly at the thought, but couldn't help it, so she began to alternate the direction where she was going, only guided by the concurrence of people.

She was wandering a good amount of time with the intention of staying away from people, but wherever she went, she found herself with more and more people and teams, happy persons and families that passed to bring her memories about her own family, although she loved her parents; she didn't get along well with them, they didn't understand the life of a ninja for being civilians so her new concerns didn't seemed important to them and laughed at her about her problems, which they called worldly concerns. So being home wasn't a good option either. Besides, her previous experience had shown conclusively that the theoretical knowledge couldn't save her from an ambush or a confrontation purely melee, so study also seemed an excellent choice for no to do in that moment, in simple words she was feeling low.

With those thoughts clouding her head, she didn't notice when she came to a not very wooded area with trees considerably smaller than the rest of the forest. Sakura then found herself watching carefully, examining her surroundings as well, the place attracted her like a moth to light. It was so beautiful, there were flowers on the soil creating small paths that led to nowhere, tender grass, and if she looked close enough, could see cracks in the earth. Feeling curious, she suddenly began moving closer to those cracks that bonded together with others to reach a large crater that was now covered by grass. Her curiosity got the better of her judgment, after all, for Naruto had functioned quite well during missions they had, why it would be different with her.

She got into the crater to examine the dirt and grass, began to walk through the abyss until her foot struck something hard, she thought it was a stone until saw a flash coming from the lawn. She knelt and began to dig slowly. Since the exam, she no longer cared much about appearances, but being honest, it was hard to get away from habits with much work Ino had taught her. She put her nails in the ground to remove the dirt and then she saw it, one thing of wood, she continued digging and removing dirt until the entire object was out, she held it up to examine it. Clearly looked like a weapon, a kunai to be exact, she picked it up and cleaned it as much as it was possible. Turning around the object, she noted that it had symbols on the handle.

The second and fourth kanji didn't distinguish clearly, but the first and third were legible, the first was the sign with which ninja is written, and the third sign can be read as mark or talisman, which was usually used for ninja techniques. Suddenly a stupid impulse crossed her mind, deciding it couldn't be that bad, she loaded chakra through her hands to the kunai, similarly to what she did to walk for the trees, but once she did, everything stopped around her.

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"You're awake?" asked a voice from above her head.

"Ngh" was all she was able to mumble.

"Your sensei was very worried when he found out you were here Sakura-chan" reported the same voice.

"My sensei? I thought he was gone to train with Sasuke" Sakura said slowly sitting up in bed, she discovered that was a hospital bed, she was in the hospital.

"I don't think he could do something like that, he always had a soft spot for you" the voice said with a laugh, looking around now could put a face to that voice. The woman who spoke was wearing medical gown and had a beautiful smile, she was beautiful and her eyes denoted happiness and worry at the same time "and I think I know him pretty well, we're close" she added.

"I think you're confused medic-san" she said looking at her as if she had said the strangest thing in the world.

"medic-san? No need to be so formal Sakura-chan" she said with a pained look, Sakura really feared she might have said something wrong.

"How do you know my name?" Sakura asked, unable to contain her curiosity, she was sure that she didn't visit the hospital regularly, she was worried to see the face of concern that had the woman in front of her. This time she was sure somehow, she have hurt her.

"Don't you remember me Sakura-chan?" she asked with a pious look, Sakura shook her head slowly answering at the same time.

"What do we do?" asked a woman, this one was different and Sakura hadn't noticed her presence at all.

"I think it would be better not to overwhelm her for now" said the beautiful woman who had awakened her "after all may be a temporary side effects" she told to the nurse, "I'll tell you Sakura-chan" she said turning her attention to her again and a soft smile that didn't reach her eyes "mental health isn't my specialty so I'll let you go for now, but you must come back tomorrow for a general check, okay?" the Genin could only nod and then get off the bed to make her way out of the hospital, it wasn't difficult, everything was marked for it.

Once outside, she began to walk aimlessly when suddenly remembered that before awake in the hospital she had taken a kunai with engravings. Not feeling like go to the hospital to seek answers was the best option after the strange reaction of the medic; she tried to go to where she had found the weapon.

"Aren't you going to say hello Sakura-chan?" Said a voice behind her, she was pretty sure she had never heard that voice before, so turned to face the voice "somebody told me that you left the hospital, I was very worried about you when you were not at our meeting point, I know I'm usually late, but I swear I have good reasons, I have to help people, it's my duty as a leaf ninja, so when I knew that my favorite Genin was in the hospital I was very worried" she examined the person this time, he was tall, a brunette man, wearing the standard Jōnin uniform, and the strangest thing of all was that part of his face had scars.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked accusingly.

"Ouch, that hurts" he replied with a dramatic look.

"You're not going to answer then?" Sakura asked irritated now, giving him a very annoyed look.

"I don't think it was that bad" he said to himself "well you seem to have changed, I loved your long hair Sakura-chan, but short hair looks good on you too, I'm happy that you no longer hide your face, you look prettier" he admitted giving her a smile. Sakura couldn't help blushing, who was this person? he looked older, around the age of Kakashi-sensei, she couldn't explain.

"Pervert!" She shouted away.

"Calm down Sakura-chan, you know I didn't mean that!" He exclaimed hastily.

"Who are you?" She asked loudly seeing everywhere looking for someone to ask for help.

"I thought you would remember your sensei" he said with a sad look.

"Sensei?" She asked looking at him, he definitely didn't wore a mask and definitely didn't have silver hair, if she remembered well, her sensei was Kakashi Hatake and this person wasn't him.

"I thought I told you I would continue training you, the fact that Naruto and Sasuke had advanced to the next round of the exam doesn't take away my responsibility to you, besides Naruto already has someone who takes charge of his training and Sasuke, well Sasuke has someone pretty special too." He said with a smile.

"I know that, but..." she chose to remain silent, it felt like a dream, so she pinched herself many times to check she was wide awake "my sensei asked you to take care of me?" she finally asked with the hope to clarify the misunderstanding, this person was talking to her as if he really knew her. He looked at her and walked slowly approaching to her, then he squatted down to be under her level and show that he wasn't a threat.

"I'm your sensei Sakura-chan" he said seriously and with a worried look on his face, then an idea crossed his mind "did someone attacked you?" He asked "Did someone hurt you? How much do you remember? Are you in pain?" He asked even more worried. Sakura looked at him with fear now, she could feel her blood stopping in her veins and her hands cold. Apparently these changes were noticed because the man before her reacted.

"Breathe. Sorry, I didn't want to overwhelm you, are you okay?" He asked softly once her breaths were more stable, she nodded slowly, although she was still scared "I don't want you to be scared so I'll tell you, but it's possible that you have been under a powerful genjutsu to steal information, and now you are a little confused, it wouldn't be..." He took a long breath "it wouldn't be the first time someone do this to a Konoha nin" he said with a sad look. Her first impression, this man was very open with his emotions, he was the opposite of a ninja, or what should be expected, at least in Sakura's head, it made her feel a little better about herself.

She didn't want to believe it, she was very afraid now, would she trust this man? He was technically a stranger to her, maybe he has been the true enemy dressed as a ninja friend, she knew better, she must trust in the ninjas of the leaf, but on the other hand had never seen this in particular.

Noticing her puzzlement, the man smiled and gently wiped a tear that had slid down her cheek.

"would make you feel better if you talk to the Hokage?" He asked gently testing the waters, she nodded slowly in response "I see" he said turning back "I'll take you there, I know it's a lot to take" he said carefully lifting her in his back. She still wasn't sure about what to do so, noting her obvious hesitation he reassured "I promise on my eye that I won't do anything to hurt you" after he said that, there was a long silence "that used to work before" he said with a small laugh. Her instincts told her she could trust this person, so didn't resist and closed her eyes expecting to wake up.

The trip to the Hokage tower was short, but to Sakura, it was very long, she didn't want to get there to discover that her whole life was a lie, she was intelligent and knew that was what he meant when he told her about the powerful genjutsu. Suddenly they stopped.

"Wait here Sakura-chan, I'll come back soon" he said leaving her standing next to the door as he knocked, a voice from inside was heard and the strange man came in. Her only consolation was that at least the genjutsu had some similarities to her real life, if true what had said the man, she was a ninja in real life too and Sasuke and Naruto were still her teammates, at least that was still the same. Suddenly she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder, she looked up to meet the strange man, again.

"You can come in Sakura-chan" heard the same voice coming from inside, she felt calmer now that she was in the security of the domains of the Hokage, but a part of her wanted this to be a genjutsu and return to her life at once. But when she lifted her gaze, she saw someone who had never seen before and began to feel anxious again because that person was wearing the clothes of Hokage, but wasn't her Hokage, she sought the safety of the strange man and hid behind him.

"I told you sensei" the strange man said stroking her head affectionately.

"Don't worry, I know we can do something for her" said the man behind the desk "May I talk to you Sakura-chan?" He asked smiling at her. She didn't want to say yes, but also knew that was the only way to find answers, after all it could be possible that this is were her true reality and she was denying it, in which case she should accept it, what other choice did she have?

"I'll be here" the strange man said, she felt supported by him so she nodded slowly and hesitantly.

"What do you remember?" asked the said Hokage with a kind look, this man also projected confidence and his gaze was warm.

"I was walking somewhere in the forest when I found a strange Kunai, I put chakra in it and then I woke up in the hospital." She said looking at that the presumed strongest man in town.

"You remember how was the kunai? Had something special?" He asked this time.

"It had three points and a wooden handle with symbols on it" she said, feeling her anxiety grow, the man nodded contemplatively, then opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out an object.

"It was something like this?" He asked pulling out a kunai exactly like she had found, but this was in better condition. Sakura nodded fervently. The Hokage nodded contemplatively "thank you" he said suddenly. She looked at him surprised "by responding when still feeling it wasn't right" he said smiling at her, she couldn't help it, he looked strangely like ...

"You're welcome sensei, I will take care of Sakura now, we can start again" the strange man number one turned to look at her now "my name is Obito Uchiha and I'm your sensei Sakura-chan, I'm going to take good care of you" he smiled brightly as he shook her hand.


	2. Chapter 2

✿ **Chapter 2:** **delineate, blur** ✿

"Uchiha?" Sakura asked helplessly, it's assumed that all the Uchiha clan was gone, dead, but she didn't know why, it just happened.

"Uchiha" confirmed Obito without giving too much importance "just like the person who took you to the hospital, I think you're our weakness Sakura-chan" he said with an amused tone.

"Who took me to the hospital?" She asked a little excited this time, if he was her sensei, it means that he wasn't training Sasuke out of the village and that meant that Sasuke could be within the fire territories, she hoped it was him who took her to the hospital.

"I thought you would have guessed, after all he is the one who's always harassing you, seriously Sakura-chan you should stop him with his protection plan, he insists that you are his small little lady in distress and that he wants to save you from his cousin with little emotional intelligence" said laughing the man with scars, now she noticed, he had part of his hitai-ate longer, covering one of his eyes. This didn't call her attention at first glance because Kakashi used to do the same, almost, but maybe she was overthinking because could be just a fad.

"I still don't know who he is" Sakura answered honestly, was supposed to be another Uchiha, the cousin of someone, that meant that there were more people in the clan Uchiha still alive, but again, it could be possible that this was the true reality and what she thought was her life was only genjutsu.

"Shisui, obviously" he said, then a cough was heard coming from the Hokage, Sakura had forgotten that he was there "sorry, I forgot about your memory problem" he apologized.

"Is there more Uchihas alive?" Asked Sakura trying to cut all the roots, she had too many questions at this time and had planned get all the possible answers.

"Sakura-chan can we talk alone?" The Hokage asked suddenly, Obito gave a last look and a gentle squeeze on her shoulder silently asking her to do so, after he did that, he left.

"Hokage-sama you wanted to talk to me?" She asked and got rid of the uncomfortable silence in the room, that was present once her sensei was gone.

"Yes, that question made me think that maybe there are many things that are different between your illusion and 'our' world" he explained "Can you tell me a little about what you remember about that world?" He asked with a serious look. If the genjutsu had the ability to make her doubt of her own reality, it should be something to worry about, especially if her attacker was alive.

"Well, in that world the Hokage was a senior, he was Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Uchiha clan was limited to one person, Sasuke-kun." She said, but then an idea and a thought got stuck in her head "Hokage-sama do you have any relationship with Naruto Uzumaki?" she asked stopping her story.

"He's my son" he said smiling softly "perhaps you don't know or remember who I am. I am the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze and while Uzumaki suits him because of his personality, he is Naruto Namikaze, at least in this world" he told her smiling brightly now. She was totally surprised, turned out to be that Naruto had parents, or at least one parent, family, and was nothing less than the fourth Hokage "then in the other world Hiruzen Sarutobi is the fourth Hokage, right?" said then the kind and friendly man.

"No" Sakura replied immediately "the fourth Hokage died saving the village" she said without thinking and then suddenly connected the dots, as a person with a good memory and whose bigger strength was based on theoretical knowledge, was technically easy to find the information in her mind, she was talking with the deceased fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Although she didn't know that he was the Naruto's father, why keep something like that as a secret? Apparently the world of the genjutsu didn't make much sense now. She was increasingly convinced that what she called reality was a simple illusion.

"Then he was the fifth Hokage?" asked again Minato taking her out of her wild thoughts.

"No, he is the third Hokage. It was named again to retake place once the fourth died" she replied.

"Now that does not make much sense, if you say he was a elder and the third hokage, he had to retire because he wasn't the same as before, it's irresponsible to have returned, wisdom and experience aren't everything to lead a hidden village, although I don't like to say it, we all have a cycle and if we don't have everything to give to our people then we shouldn't take that responsibility because if so, whether a threat occurs and the Hokage dies, the people will be helpless and segregated" he said, she didn't think the third Hokage was a weak person, was the strongest of 'his' village, but perhaps it was true that he was a little old to ensure and look after a great village, he was no longer the warrior he used to be.

"Well, that was what happened in that reality" she replied sheepishly.

"Sorry, I got carried away" said in turn "although I don't see it quite rare, the councilor Hiruzen is quite strong" he said.

"Councilor?" She asked, unable to stop, apparently reality and illusion didn't share as many similarities as she would have liked to.

"Councilor" he confirmed "apparently the illusion was very elaborate, I don't want to overwhelm you, but it seems that there are many different things, but if was all just like you're telling me, then I think the person who made the genjutsu was very knowledgeable of the internal operations of Konoha" he told her with a serious look "but that's my business now and you don't have to worry, you can discover what was different and similar now that you're back, good luck with that" he said giving her a conciliatory smile "let's make this our secret for now" he paused "by the way, the Uchiha clan is still alive" he added with a wink before she left his office.

Once Sakura left the domains of the Hokage she found that her sensei was waiting for her. She didn't expect that to tell the truth, nobody had bothered in that way for her before, except for Ino, and now she felt very stupid for discard their friendship over a boy, but Sasuke-kun wasn't just any boy, right?

"Ready to go out into the world?" her sensei asked, she had planned to do it anyway, although it would be better to do it with someone who hadn't been experiencing an alternate reality.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" She asked without thinking.

"Don't you want to go with me?" Asked the man of dark, kind eyes, she could see that he was doing everything possible to understand her situation and felt a little guilty because what she said sounded offensive.

"Is not that, I just don't want you to lose your time with me" she said honestly, didn't think deserved to be someone who could absorb the time of an elite ninja.

"As I said before, I have a responsibility to you, it's also no problem Sakura-chan, I like spend time with you, I just hope we can be just like before" he said.

"Just like before?" She asked as they walked through the village. It wasn't very different than she remembered, at least in what was concerned to the city center, where the Hokage tower was.

"Forget it, I'm just rambling" he said dismissively, she didn't believe him, but didn't have enough confidence to keep pushing the issue "then what do you want to do?" her sensei asked, she hadn't really thought about it, at the time, she just wanted to circle around, still had questions but didn't feel like get the answers now.

"At the moment I just want to walk" she said, saying just what was in her mind, Obito nodded in agreement. She began to look beyond the trees, at least the sky was still blue and the Hokage monument was the...

"What's wrong?" Obito asked seeing that she had stopped while looking at the Hokage monument.

"Who are those persons on the mountain?" She asked, being honest, she thought she knew who these people were, but wanted someone's confirmation.

"Previous hokages, Madara Uchiha, Izuna Uchiha, Danzō Shimura, and our current Hokage, Minato Namikaze" he replied politely, she was confused now, were the people she expected them to be, but that didn't make her feel better.

"..." She was going to ask something but regretted, if anything good left was her ability to learn things, and the library had many texts, at least in this world that wouldn't be different. The only difference would be the information within them "Can we go to the library?" She asked afterwards.

"Of course my cute Genin" he said with a smile. He was very friendly or very polite; in case she was bothering him, so she just merely shrugged.

They arrived in a short time, because the library was in the center of the city and were walking at slow pace since they left the Hokage tower. They entered without ceremony or large contemplations in the library. Obito took a seat on one of the tables while Sakura looked for things that were of her interest, history books specifically to solve the mental confusion that she had now.

Sakura was going through the various shelves until she found what was looking for, large books full of historical information. She took them as she could and put them on the table to read.

"If you have a question feel free to ask, there are many things I know about the first and second Hokage since both come from my clan, besides those seem very thick books, so if you want to know something specific I'm here" facilitated Obito, she really wanted to know why he was so good to her, they had just met, at least in her memory.

"Thanks" she said hesitantly, couldn't help but think that there was a trick behind all that, but for the moment she let it go until she was sure that this person actually had ulterior intentions.

Reading, she discovered that the first Hokage was Madara after Hashirama granted the power to avoid tensions between the new alliance in the clans, especially since the Uchihas had internal problems with the Sharingan by a war that occurred within the clan once. This would be her first question because the book didn't specify why, maybe it was a clan secret, but wanted to know so she opted for asking, the worse that could expect was a refusal by her sensei.

"Obito-sensei, there were conflicts within the Uchiha clan before the alliance was formed?" She asked trying her luck, to her surprise he looked up from the parchment he was reading and smiled.

"well you see, within our clan there is a dōjutsu called Sharingan, this is passed from generation to generation and consists of two known phases, there is a third phase that is the most stable and less accessible, but that's not our topic for now" she was impressed that he told all that without hesitation, he seemed to ignore her expression because he continued explaining about it "it's said that great power comes with great responsibility, in our case, that was associated to a curse, the curse of hatred. That made us seek more power and ambitions."

"This is taught to us since we are young by decree of Madara-sama, he wanted future generations to not to go through what his generation passed" he explained patiently "in short, as I was saying. This triggered a war within the clan at the time. As you know in time before the founders there were wars between clans" he contextualized before continue "Our clan discovered a technique at that time, a technique that allowed our warriors to win without sacrificing too many lives, but that cost a high price, of course" he said informative, she nodded absorbing as much information as possible "this technique was called Izanagi, but it brought consequences in our own clan, as this genjutsu could 'alter the destiny'" he explained emphasizing the word "it's quite complicated, but broadly speaking, caused a war because different members of the clan tried to change the destiny for their own interests until came Naori Uchiha-san using the Izanami and stopping the chaos that caused the Izanagi" he ended.

"I still don't understand why Madara-sama is the first Hokage instead of Hashiarama-sama" she said with complete frankly.

"Hashirama-sama was a pacifist and it hurt him to see what segregation and resentment made to the Uchiha clan, so as a sign of union and against the request of his younger brother, he gave way to Madara-sama as a symbol of unity within the own Uchiha clan and the Senju-Uchiha new alliance" he finished, well that certainly made sense now, a little.

"There were no problems with Tobirama-sama?" Asked Sakura, in the books wasn't specified.

"At first, but he was the younger brother and had to respect the decrees of the head of the clan, who lived for a long time preserving peace among all clans and traveling outside the village to form new alliances" said the man with crow hair "Tobirama-sama also seemed content with the idea along the way, after all he played the role of head of clan while Hashirama-sama made alliances with other clans and lands" he added.

"I see" she said contemplatively, everything seemed clearer now though part of the conversation was spinning in her head "why are you telling me all that about the Sharingan and your clan sensei?" she released.

"I believe in team work little blossom, your teammate and your sensei have the same dōjutsu and the same family history, I believe that to enhance our skills and to compensate our weaknesses, we need to know as much as possible from each other, that's way if someone gets out of the way or is going through the darkness, will be easier bring back that person, in the best case" he said smiling. It was ridiculous, but only with those words she felt more part of a team than ever before, she smiled back at him.

She continued her research after that, making occasional questions to her new sensei, discovered that he wasn't polite, he was friendly and willing to help her with everything he could.

It turned out to be that while Madara took care of the village as the first Hokage, the Uchiha clan came to the final union driven by the contribution of his younger brother, Izuna Uchiha. Younger siblings of leaders and peace makers took the real reins of their respective clans, and those were added when the story continued to advance.

The politics of this world included linking the village within the clan's politics to avoid wars or misunderstandings between them and avoid a possible civil war.

In addition to his duties within the clan, Izuna Uchiha took under his wing a Genin team in which he had Torifu Akimichi, Kagami Uchiha and Danzō Shimura. Tobirama Senju took a Genin team too, in which was Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, at least that was the same in the illusion, but the third Hokage changed, she assumed that, with Izuna being the second Hokage he appointed as his successor his most promising or responsible student, it wasn't difficult to establish a connection point once she had all the information of the alternative world and the real. The title of Hokage was inherited from teacher to student from the second Hokage, at least that was real in the alternate reality.

"excuse me Obito-sensei" she interrupted her train of thought "who was the sensei of Minato-sama?" She asked.

"The sensei of my sensei was Jiraiya, who was the student of Danzō-sama" he replied, well she just knew that Jiraiya was the Sannin that was taking over the Nruto's training, at least in the illusion world, the three legendary Sannin existed in this world too?

"Yes" Obito replied.

"How did you do that?" She asked with shock, this man could read minds? What kind of jutsu was that?

"Yes, I can read your mind Sakura-chan" he said with a completely serious look, she was surprised "I'm joking, you muttered and as the busybody that I am, I answered the question. Regarding the rest, I only guessed that question crossed your mind by your expression, you're like me in that aspect" he said with a laugh "about the Sannin, yes, they exist in this world too" he confirmed again without questions about it.

"I see" she said "that means the next possible Hokage is Naruto?" she asked this time, it was easy to see where things were heading.

"He was interested in the beginning but he isn't now he knows about all the paperwork that has Minato-sensei, the dream was removed of him shortly after the traumatic experience. As for the next Hokage, you're seeing him my pretty Genin, if certain person doesn't steal the place of course" he muttered at the end of the sentence.

"Really?" She asked, that sounded somewhat amazing, in which was supposed to be her alternate reality Naruto didn't stop talking about it and now in the real world he didn't wanted to be hokage anymore; sounded a bit strange.

"really" he confirmed.

They spent the rest of the afternoon reading scrolls and books, he answered all her questions with patience and detail, including those concerning to his clan. They even paused to eat, but that didn't surprise her, they ended up eating ramen in Ichiraku, leastways that was exactly the same.

Although she hasn't met her teammates yet, she was a little happy with that because didn't felt ready to deal with it, not without knowing with certainty some things about this world.

They spent a little more time until the library was closed and Obito found himself walking her to home, Sakura felt a little embarrassed to ask this because had already consumed much of his time, but she really was afraid to go to a house in which didn't lived, so she found herself asking him to accompany her home once they left the library.

"Tell me Sakura-chan, would you be willing to return to training tomorrow?" He asked once they were outside her door, that was a question that would never had crossed her mind.

"Yes" she said, she was planning to make a change in her life, so that the next time they will advance together, as a team, to blur her illusion and delineate her new reality.

"I'm glad to hear it, see you tomorrow at seven in the third training field" he said before leaving.

She knocked on the door and looked at the house where she was, the Brightside was that her house was the same that she had in the alternate reality, which was an illusion.

Her new optimistic resolution was interrupted by the door opening.

"Sakura-chan?" Asked a woman, she looked like her mother in the alternate world, she expected her to be her mother in this world too.

"Hello" she said awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

"I was so worried about you, where have you been these three days?" Asked the woman holding her as if her life depended on it.

"I... um" she didn't know what to say, had no idea how long she had been in the hospital and certainly didn't know if that response would be to her liking.

"I'm so sorry much, we didn't want to say that, your father and I were wrong and I'm sorry, we're really sorry" she said, her mother was crying on her shoulder and was an uncomfortable feeling to experience "we don't want to lose you, please don't hate us" she said between sobs that felt strange on her, the whole situation was very rare.

"Sorry princess I didn't want to get to that" the voice of her father said, she wanted to know what had happened, but didn't think it was the best time to ask, so she just nodded and let it go but the feeling of anguish remained in her chest.

"can I go to my room? It's been a long day" she said trying to wriggle out of all that, she was beginning to feel uncomfortable, her parents smiled and she made her way to her room, hoping that tomorrow would be better and maybe, just maybe wake up in the world she used to call reality, now a mere illusion.

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The pinkette awoke the next day feeling different, more rested than she used to be and now was ready for anything, or so she felt, made her way to the bathroom to take a shower and then proceeded to dress. She found that her clothes were different here, were darker, more decks, heavier.

After dressing up, she had breakfasted with her parents, although in an uneasy tension, they kept the guilt and sadness looking at her as if she passed away, and she didn't know how to feel about it so left the house as soon as she had opportunity.

Suddenly she remembered she had to be on the training field number three, although didn't want to believe that this was her reality, at least not yet and it was strange accept everything out of nothing when yesterday she thought she had another life completely different.

She arrived in time, but her sensei didn't, well that wasn't new, contrarily, it was a strangely comforting feeling because her illusory sensei used to have that habit too so slowly reality and illusion were merging, that was a good thing, right?

"Good morning Sakura-chan" Obito said exhausted once he appeared in her field of vision, she felt a little disappointed once she saw him, she wanted to be in her 'reality',that's why she averted to look at the Hokage monument when she made her way to the meeting point. She didn't question anything, rather, didn't asked for an explanation because it was the second day that interacted with him, in a world that still believed wasn't hers, but it wasn't necessary because he seemed to explain himself "I was helping an elderly woman to carry the bags of groceries and took longer than I expected" he said, she could only laugh, similarities with Kakashi and this man were a lot now she thought about it.

"Let's make... well, actually I didn't think about it" he admitted putting a hand behind his head "is that, well I don't know what you remember about your ninja training so I don't know where to start" he said, well she wanted to say something, but really didn't had many ninja skills apart from theoretical knowledge, she stunk in every sense of the word.

"just academy training" said ashamed of herself.

"Now there is no need for the long face, I'm here to teach you" he said smiling conciliatory "so we can start where I know you have an affinity, chakra control" feeling a little better she nodded.

"Actually" she started "I know how to climb trees and I can do it in the water" she admitted, she had worked on it for herself after the mission of the waves, she wanted Sasuke-kun to recognize her for something and when she tried knew that the water had more difficulty than trees.

"That's great Sakura-chan, but I won't lie, you can't only rely in chakra control to be a strong and capable ninja, so we will work on basic training to increase your endurance and accuracy" he said.

"Crystal sensei" she said with determination.

Determination disappeared once her body fell to the ground after so much exercise, it was good that no longer mattered much to her how she looked or might have died of humiliation.

"You did it well" encouraged the Jōnin as he handed her a bottle of water "but we haven't finished, I want you to do three laps more then, hydrate yourself, I know it hurts now, but the more you try the less time it will take you to say goodbye to the feeling" he supplemented.

"When you say it, doesn't sound so hard, but we must be realistic sensei, I will die" she said between heavy breathing.

"Sakura-chan, mood, I'm cheering you up" he said and made a sign to get up, she moaned, it was going to be a long day.

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After trying to throw kunai and shuriken to refine her aim, and after her sensei corrected virtually everything she thought was right, she collapsed on the floor a fifth time since she ran.

"You have to go to the hospital for a checkup, medic-san said so" he said quoting and laughing at her, Sakura still felt guilty about the medic put that face that time, so she pouted "also, you don't want to be late to your medical training right?" he said.

"Medical training?" She questioned, definitely didn't remember that, but seemed like she couldn't remember anything but the illusion if she was telling the truth.

"I imagined that something like this would happen anyway, but I'll take you there or we'll be there tomorrow" he said laughing again and turning for give her a piggy back, Sakura was sure he enjoyed to torture her.

The road became a blur as she clung to his neck, they arrived very quickly, Obito was pretty fast and when he opened the door of the medical room, the same beautiful woman went out to meet Sakura and her sensei.

"Hello again my love" greeted the woman when she saw them enter, Sakura was sure she didn't speak to her so she looked at her sensei, he seemed very happy because his smile was soft and his eyes filled with idolatry, it was clear he was in love and who knows for how long.

"Hello again Rin" he replied.

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 **A/N:**

I made some changes because I uploaded the draft instead of the clean document, silly me. Sorry for the inconvenience


	3. Chapter 3

✿ **Chapter 3:** **Approach / Departure** ✿

"Eh?" Sakura said with shock, she had made feel bad the girlfriend of her sensei and he had mocked of her for it, it was definitely a bad start.

"Right, right, the problem of memory" recalled Obito to himself "Sakura-chan she's your teacher of chakra control and medical ninjutsu" he introduced.

"My name is Uchiha Rin and I'm delighted to meet you" she said with amusement in her voice, but with a kind gesture, Sakura felt comfortable with her almost instantly.

"Uchiha?" Apparently it was true that they were scattered all around.

"She's not an Uchiha by blood or birth, she's my wife Sakura-chan" he said obviously funny but proud of it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you" said Sakura apologetically awkwardly, was the second time that offended the medic ninja.

"You did," she said content.

"Well Miss and Mrs. I'm leaving you, I have to go to address some issues respect to the paperwork with Minato-sensei" he said apologetically to leave.

"Good luck" they said both.

"You too" he smiled before leaving.

"Well Sakura-chan tell me where should we begin? Obito told me that your chakra control is well above average and I have seen for myself in previous workouts but maybe you can't remember" she said," but if you want we can prove, something like a test" suggested the brunette.

"I think it's a good idea" Sakura said "but, what I suppose to do?" she asked to weigh the options.

"Well I suggest walking on water or on the trees" Rin said putting a finger on her chin.

"I can do that Rin-sensei" Sakura admitted.

"Then I think we can raise the level a little, don't you think?" She said jolly "this is something I started to try after I managed to master those disciplines and I began to venture into the art of medical ninjutsu" she said excitedly, "we must look for a large body of water in first place, then we will need some leaves"

They did it, Rin took her to a lake near the training camps, the road was short but unhurried. The collection of leaves wasn't difficult because Konoha was a green village and surrounded by trees everywhere so that was the easiest part of the whole plan.

"Well Sakura-chan, I want you to walk on water while holding this sheet in your head" Rin said pointing an oak leaf between her fingers "but without using your hands. The exercise of the leaf on your head is something that is dominated in the academy if I remember correctly, so that part should be simple, you just have to put the two together, I'm sure you could do it if you walk through the trees so we are going to skip that step and you will walk in the water instead" Rin suggested "now take this, do it carefully or you'll end all wet" she said as she laughed.

Sakura did what she asked, first sought balance in the water, it was a strange thing at first but after much practice was almost natural for her, so she stepped on the water without fear and then took another step and then other and another until she was ventured in deep waters of the lake. It was very windy in that area due to the presence of trees around the body of water so if she let the leaf over her head balanced without chakra, this would fly and disappear into the foliage or float in the water, there was no possibility of cheating, but it wasn't like if Sakura would do it, she was always bad at lying.

"Now put the leaf over your head and focus your chakra in both parts of your body, it goes without saying that if you put more care on the leaf you will fall under water and if you put more attention on the water than on the leaf, then you should come to seek a new one" Rin yelled from the shore.

The girl tried to, but found it was more complicated than it seemed, she focus on the chakra in their body parts which were so far apart, it was a little complex. She was worried that her feet lose the natural balance of the quiet stream of the lake, but also must ensure that the leaf was standing firm in her head, were two different controls because in the water she had to change the flow of her chakra for yoked it to the movement of the fluid, while for the leaf, she must maintain static the chakra taking care not to move it from its place, all in completely distant parts of her body, at different ends.

"Now walk towards me" commanded Rin.

That would be more complicated, to be still in a certain place of the lake was one thing, but walking through the water while her feet were creating waves in the water and at the same time, these interfered with waves of the lake, was more complex sync, without ignoring that the leaf in her head should remain in its place. With every step she felt more hesitant to the point that felt she couldn't do it and that everything was going to fail, she was pretty sure would end up losing balance and leaf. She was completely focused on looking into the water, watching her own reflection distorted by the movement and suddenly realized that her reflection was interrupted by small rocks at the bottom, she kept moving and soon touched land.

"you did it excellent Sakura-chan, I must admit I'm a little jealous, it took me some time to adapt both controls of chakra" Rin pouted "but I think your chakra control is superior to mine after all, I'm sure that if you train enough someday you will become as good in medical ninjutsu as Tsunade-sama is" Rin said, Sakura wasn't stupid, she knew that Tsunade was the world's strongest kunoichi and one of the three legendary Sannin and Rin was comparing her tiny being to her, it was a bit overwhelming and mostly somewhat misleading, so far the only thing she knew to do well was control her chakra and she wasn't so sure now that had completed the recent exercise, it consisted much more she thought at the beginning and Tsunade-sama was another scale of achievement completely different.

"Well, all these leaves were not for nothing" Rin said breaking the silence that was formed.

"What?" Sakura couldn't help it, she asked in shock, she thought that the additional leaves were intended to serve as spares in case she failed the exercise.

"Because you can keep the leaf in your head, I think we will move faster by adding other, the more leaves you can keep on your person without falling into the water, the better you will be in control your own chakra" Rin smiled.

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"While you dry, would you accompany me to watch my rounds Sakura-chan? After all, I think it would be suitable to train you in medical ninjutsu soon, I can't wait" the woman with brown eyes said very excited.

Sakura got wet after more leaves were added, a part of her knew it would happen sooner or later, but the demanding part of her was disappointed to have fallen overboard, she could do it better.

"You should go to see Shisui, he was worried when he left you here, didn't want to leave but had a mission to do" Rin said as Sakura kept the scrolls and medical supplies.

"Obito-sensei told me about it, but I do not remember" Sakura admitted.

"Anyway I think it would be good if you meet him, he looked scared as he walked through that door" she said with a serious look, pointing to the entrance of the room.

"I guess I could" gave the young girl with spring hair, it was true that she couldn't continue to deny her reality and perhaps contact with people she used to know would help her to adapt more quickly to all this "but don't know where I can find him" she added.

"If you want to see him you just have to stay here until appears, today is the day when he'll return from his mission and I'm sure this will be his first stop" Rin smiled.

So she did it, she waited in the hospital and accompanied Rin to make her rounds. Sakura realized that Rin was chief of medicine at the hospital of Konoha and was much loved by her patients for her kind treatment, although she was stubborn and authoritarian when she had to be, especially with the most difficult patients.

It wasn't long time accompanying her mentor when she suddenly felt something warm bumped into her, wrapped its arms around her and lifted her from the ground, spinning.

"You're alright!" Said the person, fact that was discovered recently.

"Um" Sakura merely mutter still spinning.

"Shisui, now you checked that she's alive and safe could you put her down please?" Rin asked, laughing.

"Sure, sure" he said apologetically and leaving her on the floor. Sakura looked up and saw the person who had taken her to the hospital, he was tall, almost as much as her sensei, could bet they hadn't more than two centimeters apart, he seemed to be in, or near twenty years. He had black, wavy hair, his eyes were dark as those of all Uchiha blooded that had known so far and wore the uniform of Jōnin of Konoha, although it had a symbol on his jacket that resembled a shuriken with the Uchiha crest in its center.

"Hello" she greeted awkwardly, how it was supposed to greet someone she didn't know, but that also seemed to be close to her?

"Are you okay?" He asked with a warm smile and gently pulling her pink hair "aw you cut it" he said disappointed and pouting "although I like you more when you don't hide your face, by the way" he said.

"Um, I..." she turned to look at Rin and ask for help, the medic seemed to understand and approached them.

"I think it's necessary to establish some things. Sakura-chan has been subjected to a very powerful genjutsu that caused her to lose some important memories, at least that's what we think might have happened" she reported with professional tone, Sakura saw how the characteristics of the young man in front of her got dark with what Rin just said.

"Do you know who was?" He asked seriously to her.

"Unfortunately no, but if you want to know more about it you have to talk to Minato-sensei, he's taking care of the whole thing from now on" Sakura felt strange as other people spoke about her as if she wasn't there, but everything changed when the newcomer turned to face her again.

"Hello Sakura-chan, I'm Shisui Uchiha, your self-appointed protector" he said bringing his hand for her to shake it, she turned and greeted "I think we have a lot of things with which to catch up" he continued.

"Go slow, we don't want to overwhelm my student" Rin said jokingly.

"Did she agreed to be your apprentice?" He asked surprised, that caught her attention, but opted for let it go.

"Well yes, but enough of that, I need to get back to work" the brown-haired woman said.

"So it's okay if I steal Sakura from now?" He asked.

"Ask her" she spoke back.

"Sakura-chan, would you be willing to walk with me?" He asked, she knew shouldn't say yes to strangers, but guessed it really wasn't a stranger after all, also seemed reliable.

"Yeah, okay" she said now more convinced.

They left the hospital when the evening shadows began to appear on the horizon, they walked at a slow pace and mired in uncomfortable silence. She never had seen this person in her whole life and felt a little strange being at his side. Bored of the tense silence, she ventured to clarify some of her doubts.

"Shisui-san" she began capturing his attention, he turned to her forming a smile on his face, apparently she was the one who was in an uncomfortable silence, because seemed as if he had just finished thinking about something.

"What's wrong?" He asked kindly.

"I was wondering why you seemed surprised when you heard that I accepted the medical training with Rin-sensei" she really had no urge to know that, but supposed that was better than silence.

"Well, I don't know if you remember, but Obito told me one day that you asked him to learn medical ninjutsu, but he told you he didn't know about it so you begged him to intercept with Rin to see if she could make someone teach you, or accept to do it by herself" he said casually without stopping, she just nodded to let him to continue.

"The thing is that after she said yes you were absolutely excited, but after a day or two you declined the training and you said you didn't want to continue" he said now more serious and this time he stopped, turning to look at her.

"What's wrong?" Asked Sakura without understanding much, he had a serious look and that was giving anxiety to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly, as if he feared had said something wrong, she looked at him blankly "forget it, I think you'll tell me when the time comes" smiled and dismissed the issue, turning again to take the course of their stroll.

"Then I declined the training?" asked Sakura returning to the previous topic.

"Seven times, but Obito it's so obstinate that it was convinced that you just were denying because you hadn't enough confidence in yourself or something like that, so he kept asking you to try it, you always said yes when he asked, but then changed your mind. You are a whimsical person" he added the latter with a timeout.

"I have another question, Obito-sensei and you told me the same about my hair, what about that?" she asked this time, it was a mundane topic and knew it, but the tension seemed to increase after the last question.

"You see, before you woke up in the hospital, you used to wear long hair with bangs, I personally liked the long hair because I could play with it as I used to do with my cousin's, I have to admit, but the bangs you wore was something long and covered part of your face and your eyes. Rin onee-chan offered to cut it for you many times, but you refused saying something about your forehead, you also had enough of us on your side, for the long hair, not for your forehead" This time the ambient itself was lightened "I personally think you had nothing to be ashamed for, certainly you have changed more than your appearance, your personality seems different" he smiled "I like that" said ruffling her hair gently.

She couldn't help it, he projected the aura of familiarity, similar to which had Naruto and Obito, she smiled.

"By the way, you should go back to the territories of the clan when you can, we miss you there" he said casually "I don't say you must do it now, I know it's better to take this issue of your memory slowly so you won't overwhelm yourself, so anytime you can tell me and I'll take you there"

"Thanks, I guess," she replied, still felt that her answers were clumsy, but it also seemed as if she was improving, and things weren't as tense as in the beginning.

"You returned to training?" He asked conversationally.

"Yes, although it has been very hard, I will not lie" she complained "but I like it, it's different from what I used to do" she said happily.

"Sakura, you must know that you can tell me anything, and if you didn't know, I want you to know it now, I will not judge so you can always count on me" he told to her with a very serious tone, he seemed to know things she didn't, her confusion seemed to be palpable because soon he added "if all about the illusion it's a lie you can tell me, or if you remember who attacked you, can also tell me, I will do everything possible to protect you"

"I would like to think that the illusion was a lie, but it wasn't, I really can't remember many things right now and I'm not sure if the memories I've lost will return to me one day, I'm sorry but what you ask it is too much Shisui-san, right now you're a stranger to me and I'm a ninja, I know I shouldn't trust you just because you tell me to" she said directly, he seemed hurt by it, but only smiled, a smile that didn't reached his eyes "but that doesn't mean we can't be as you tell me we used to be before" she was forced to say it after seeing that look on his face, the oblivion was a painful harm.

"Okay, I understand" he spoke after a moment. Shortly after he said that a raven landed on his shoulder.

"Apparently there is a meeting on the police department, I'll walk you home" he said, Sakura knew he must have other obligations, but luckily already knew the way to her home.

"Don't worry about it, I can go home by myself" she said smiling "It was nice to meet Shisui-san"

"okay, but don't think I'm giving up, somehow or other I'll teach you genjutsu, thus no one can make you doubt your reality or about me, anymore," he said as he walked away.

That was a strange encounter, she decided smiling, but nothing had been quite normal since she had returned, indeed, didn't know what was normal anymore.

She was walking home slowly trying to soak up with the place waiting for some memories come back to her if it were possible somehow, when suddenly she saw her, she was there, couldn't help it and slowly approached to her.

"Ino, good to see you" greeted Sakura, she really expected that after the Chūnin exams could resolve their differences, after all everything had been demonstrated between them. Truth be told, she hadn't considered the illusion at all when she approached to her, but she guessed it might not be so different, at least her relationship with Ino, she sensed that would be one of the few things she was sure that wouldn't change.

"Sakura right?" Asked the blonde with appreciation, she nodded hesitantly, great, apparently in this world still had not settled their differences "I'm Ino Yamanaka, but I think you already knew that, you need something?" she added, a time awkward silence was stood between them, she couldn't believe Ino was presenting to her, that meant they didn't know each other or that the blonde was being completely unsympathetic, she chose the second option, Ino could be very cold if she wanted to.

"Well I wanted to know how you were doing" she said awkwardly while pretending to be annoyed at how she had been treated, one thing was their rivalry and quite another to pretend she had never met her in deeper terms than simply classmates.

"pretty well thanks, what about you?" said the blonde awkwardly, it was obvious that the blonde wasn't expecting Sakura to approach to talk to her.

"fine, thank you" was now the pinkette who was doubting whether they were rivals, maybe Ino had some problems to start again.

"I will be frank with you, I wish we could have been friends sometime, you seem to be nice" Ino said with confidence that she remembered, but the only sentence left her empty inside, which was supposed to mean that?

"I think I confused you with someone else" she said, not knowing what else to do and retreated hastily, knew it was a clumsy and stupid move, but at that time her only thought was getting out of there. She didn't know for sure if in the real life Ino and her were friends. Although they had their differences in her illusion, knowing that they didn't knew each other, left her quite sad. After all, she was the person who had taught her to trust in herself and to stand on her own feet.

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She shouldn't have been fooled by the friendly smile and affable and friendly attitude of him, her sensei was a sadist. She knew her worst grades were in ninjutsu at the academy, didn't think that was different in this world, or anything else, being realistic all she knew were things that were on the books... academy books, she would die someday if she was out there alone, no doubt about that.

Iruka sensei had told her that wasn't all bad, but the truth is that he was too friendly with everyone, moreover, she was sure he had told her she could have affinity with genjutsu only to make her feel better. She should have known, and believed that deep inside always knew it, but was clearer when her superficiality mask broke after a piece of reality faced during the Chūnin exams. The scariest part of this was that these tests were considered a cinch with what was out there, or compared to wars and her and her team hardly survived those five days.

But she should concentrate on her task now, it had been three weeks since she had returned to reality and things were beginning to settle around her, also her training had become part of her, although it was becoming increasingly demanding, there was no day she didn't end on the floor like a piece of a human being.

Her sensei had a tendency to use ninjutsu, he explained that it was because it gave him more time to think about strategies if many enemies faced him, while also keeping them at bay if he needed to, or could wipe them with only a well-aimed blow.

He explained to her that it was inadvisable to rely on a unique style of fighting because there were people who were quicker or had better techniques to use at long distance, besides sometimes those same were weak at short distances. That's why he was good with the genjutsu too, and taijutsu. she had to admit she was envious.

"Sakura-chan pay attention" chided Obito, he had been teaching her ninjutsu for two weeks and in those two weeks hadn't stopped to rest, even if she had no chakra, in that case he said she should practice hand positions to make her faster and faster and more accurate.

Her sensei started with the basic level of the academy, that was easily mastered by her thanks to her training with Rin, she was teaching her to focus the right amount and precise chakra to heal different areas of a fish, so she could calculate the amount chakra needed to make a simple ninjutsu, that wasn't a real problem for her so that was dominated with relative ease, until he insisted that she must explore her nature and affinity. She discovered that her affinity chakra was the earth, but thanks to her medical training, water had also become a kind of nature to her, after all, all living beings with which she had practiced, had water inside, though she couldn't completely cure the fish yet, Rin assured her it was because she didn't trust enough in herself, what led her to falter and fail because she really had the talent.

That's why Obito said he was willing to take action if it was necessary, he told her that his nature was fire, so to make her learn water ninjutsu faster, promised that he would attack her with fire and she should fight his attacks without avoiding them, if that was possible, so she was putting all of herself to capture everything he was saying.

While being honest Obito wasn't going to do that really, talking with Rin both had concluded that when it came to her skills she lacked of confidence and that made to predestine herself to failure, so he was trying to pressure her and so far was working, he knew that dominate a chakra nature wasn't easy. He decided to start with the water because in that way the earth would be even easier, plus the water was more conducive to attacks, while the earth element was more for defense, in most cases.

Despite all that, he wasn't focused only on training ninjutsu with Sakura, he was worrying about all the areas that could cover, but so far hadn't fully entered in taijutsu, he only was physically preparing her for resistance increase and thus her chances to learn the discipline to increase too.

"Ended up today" said Obito and Sakura finally breathed normally "you did it better than yesterday, I'll give you that" he said, always encouraged her after they ended, but not before. In fact, seemed that it worked because Sakura always struggled to hear that, recognition was a nice thing to hear.

"Obito-sensei" Sakura called while her breathing normalized "how we passed the exam to be Genin?" That was a question that came after her first training session, but dismissed in favor of the learning.

"Well that's funny because you were the only one who didn't" her sensei promptly answered.

"I didn't do it? Then why you are training me?" That was something that didn't fit at all, didn't seemed to make sense.

"Because two people told me I would be the dumbest person if I let you go" he replied with simplicity "you have very good allies Sakura-chan and the funny thing is that apparently you didn't know when the test happened" he added.

"But then, you made an exception? What about the rules?" questioned the girl completely confused now, it was assumed that the sensei of his sensei was the Hokage, but that doesn't mean that Obito could be careless and free of the law and rules.

"I'll tell you everything and you will judge it" suggested Obito "Well, first I asked all of you to do the same test that made my sensei to my team, and the sensei of my sensei did to my sensei, is a tradition I guess"

"What test was that?" She couldn't refrain from asking.

the bell test" he would begin to explain what was tested, but she stopped him.

"I know that, it was in the illusion too, I took the same test" she explained to avoid any doubts.

"Well then I think I will not need to tell you about it" he said "Well, first I asked the three of you to take the test, but as you know, there were only two bells, you looked at me and I could tell by your expression that you already knew the objective of the test "

"But that means I already knew the test's purpose, right? So why did I lose?" She asked, this was meaningless and apparently the more she know about it, the less sense it had.

"Yes, that's why you gave up" he finished.

"I what?" She asked, couldn't believe it, she wouldn't give up if Sasuke-kun was there to see it, that would be embarrassing.

"You said that there was no way someone from a nameless clan and also a civil one, could win against the son of the Hokage and a representative of the Uchiha clan, especially knowing that both were best friends since they were quite young, so you retired and thanked me for taking hassle. I must admit that I didn't know what to do, all I could think was staying there standing, until I finally reacted and asked you why didn't want to try it, you answered you knew that the purpose of the test was to work together and there was no way that both wasted their time with you, that it was likely that both of them would try to win the bells as they possibly didn't trust you" she was shocked to hear that, that didn't sound anything like her, also Sasuke and Naruto were friends? Since when? She thought about ask, but she considered stupid because her reality had been removed from her memory, so it was a very possible scenario.

"Then just I gave up? just like that?" She asked dumbfounded.

"Yes, I was impressed too, that never happened to me, I have to admit that I had rejected teams before because they refused to work together, especially because it was presumable their first time interacting with each other, but you just went away by yourself" he said .

"But then that means... I still don't understand who convinced you about training me, I assume Rin-sensei knew me because of you and I don't think I know anyone else that would support me in that aspect" she reasoned, after all her parents didn't wanted her to be a ninja.

"Well, one of those persons was Shisui and the other was-"

"Obito-san there's a clan meeting" said a person who had arrived recently.

"thanks" replied the alluded and then turned his attention back to Sakura "I'm afraid we'll have to leave this conversation for another day, you're free for today, see you tomorrow" he said leaving the training camps.

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"Ino, I'm sorry about the other day, it's just-" she didn't know how to continue the sentence without appearing socially inept, so she chose to tell the truth disguised, because all about the illusion was a secret under Hokage's decree "I've had a lot of things in mind, that's all" she apologized.

"No hard feelings, I think I can understand, with all the stress of the Chūnin exams and all that stuff I think I feel a little deluged" the blonde said smiling, "but I'm still a little disappointed with myself for not winning or at least have given a better fight" appended her illusory friend.

"I was wondering why we never were friends?" Sakura asked out of the initial discomfort that was between them.

"The truth is that I wanted to talk to you at a beginning, I found you crying once because some girls from school were jealous of your hair color and your green eyes, I'm sure" said the blue eyed girl a little pissed out "my father told me that I must treat everyone with respect, and what you were through wasn't fair. He taught me to defend the injustices so I thought I could go near to you and offer my help, but then someone else appeared, this guy of the Uchiha clan" Ino said as if she was remembering the event as if had happened just two days ago "I think he was patrolling and stopped to offer his help, he looked nice and I thought there was no place for me because the problem seemed to be solved and he was a ninja so there was no place to me. After that we didn't talk anymore. Well actually we never talked" Ino admitted" but we could if you want, I think we could get along" Ino said more confident now.

"Sure, I'd like that" Sakura said smiling.

"Shikamaru is waiting for me, Asuma-sensei said we should help him as a team for the next phase of the Chūnin exams, see?" Shikamaru was there waiting for the blonde.

"Hello" Sakura greeted.

"You're different" said Shikamaru, she had never spoken to him, not really or on a personal level, but that was a rare thing to hear.

"Don't be annoying Shikamaru" Ino scolded him "do not worry about him, he's just being a lout, he does often, that's all, you know, there are only two days left for the final phase of the Chūnin exams" Ino said.

"True" the dissociated girl replied coasting, but soon came to realize that meant the meeting with her teammates again, or in this case, for the first time since she realized that her life was a lie.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4** **: better / worse**

Sakura had spent studying the last day before the Chūnin exam. The training with Obito-sensei had been brief and concise because he had to prepare the paperwork and some other things because he was one of the sensei who had had at least one student who qualify to the last stage of the test. That's why Sakura had spent the rest of her day studying history of Konoha to see if she could remember anything, and if that didn't work; learn everything again.

The girl couldn't sleep for a long time at nights, had headaches and suffered from nightmares at night remembering things to discover then that it was all a lie, but the memories were so vivid that part of her continued screaming that all was real, and the true lie was the reality she was living a month ago.

She was really afraid of reuniting with her fellow team, on one hand because she was pathetic compared to them because she was the only person in the team that hadn't passed to the next stage, and in the other hand, she didn't know what part of the illusion was true, she only knew that Sasuke and Naruto were her teammates, nothing else. She was anxious and nervous, definitely.

But nothing is like we want, time passes despite our desires, so at some point of the day, the examinations came. The twelve year old girl woke up especially early that day, she tried to sleep, but couldn't do it, so she began to read more books and documents until the first ray of sunlight filtered through the window and hit her in the face, with every second, her heart kicked her chest.

The morning passed like a movie, didn't feel she was being part of her own life and routine until she saw the doors of the headquarters of the exam, many people were making their way there so when she walked into the place, she wasn't alone. It was obvious that Chūnin exams brought a lot of attention, both civilians and the ninja population. Some rumors said that big bets were made on the candidates heads among the stands of the stadium, that doesn't surprise her, after all was one of the events that brought more foreigners into the town that was the center of the event.

The day was sunny, the sky was clear and the air a little warm. It wasn't the ideal for such a grueling exam, but it the appropiate for the spectators who were sheltered of the sun by the facilities of the arena. Sakura arrived and inmediately then was intercepted by Shisui.

"Do you need help?" He asked chivalrously "I think you might need some moral support to join to your team" he smiled. Sakura hadn't thought about it, but now she was grateful that he had noticed and was looking after her, she smiled.

Obito had given to her a contact point to meet with her team before the exam began, for her not to cheer complete strangers, or rather her teammates, and for the tension decreased, this was Rin's idea.

Sakura started walking with Shisui in comfortable silence through the facilities, to get where they supposed to meet the rest of her team, but for that they had to climb a few stairs, she knew how to get to it, but also felt like her steps were unsteady the more they approached to their impending encounter. She didn't realize that she was decreasing her steps slowly until felt Shisui gave her a little push forward, where were some doors to the room in which all the competitors were reunited, she knew the other ninjas that had passed the phase would be recieving support from their sensei or teammates, if they were still alive because, at least in what was concerned to Konoha and their standards of convivence. After all it was a known fact that not all villages were alike to others, or followed the same philosophies.

She hesitated to put her hand on the doorknob and when she thought she was ready to turn around and leave, felt a weight on the shoulders and a voice in the ear.

"You'll be fine, I'm with you" Shisui said softly, she let out a sigh she didn't know was holding and opened the door, the brightness of the room was intensified by the fear of facing a team she didn't knew for sure, a team that wasn't her team before the last month.

"Sakura-chan!" Shouted an unmistakable voice followed by a hug, at least the illusion creator had done an amazing job capturing the volume of his voice because it was as noisy as usual, but instead of being unpleasant at it, as most of the time, this turned out to be a comforting voice and to take all her concerns off, maybe things weren't that different after all.

"Dobe, know you she doesn't like when she's being yelled to her ear, or to be approached or touched or looked" Sasuke said apathetically, or what appeared to be Sasuke, his attitude was a little different, normally he wouldn't mind at all if something so trivial had happened, he would simply look away and offend Naruto by his strange behavior by saying he was wasting of his time and then being a 'bastard' to him, in Naruto's perception. But this wasn't like him "hello Sakura, it has been a while" the dark haired genin greeted, she looked at Shisui hesitantly, he was there looking at Sasuke and when he felt her sight, he approached to them offering his moral support.

"Hey Naruto, Sasuke-kun" she waved stiffly and with an attempt to smile.

"just Naruto, no Naruto-san now? Not that I'm complaining, I like it, believe it" said the blond with deep blue eyes "and I'm sure that the teme doesn't mind about the new suffix" he replied hitting sasuke superficially.

"I don't understand" she said honestly, stepping back a little, that had taken her by surprise, she hoped everything with her team could be just like in her illusion world, she wanted at least one thing or relationship to be exactly the same, something to be stable. Her breathing quickened and began to look at all places trying to find something that was constant, something that could say to her that she wasn't that far from reality.

"You okay?" Asked Sasuke approaching her, but she backed away, at that moment appeared Shisui quickly standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders turning her on her axis to face him, he bent to be below her level.

"Sakura look at me, stay with me, breathe, count to ten and backwards, slowly" he said, still holding her shoulders, she nodded stiffly and prepared to do what he asked.

Naruto and Sasuke looked puzzled the exchange between them, they watched with a little trepidation as she trembled slightly trying to breath and Sasuke's cousin cleaning the tears from her cheeks, they were about to get close when suddenly something pulled them back from the collars of their clothes.

"Now we need to talk" said the voice of their sensei "is not allowed to me to be here a long time for last minute cheat prevention, but there is something you need to know. As I said before, you have to be nice with Sakura-chan, but at a slow evelopment, you must try not to be so affable, it's better for you two not to know much about it at the moment, in that way this won't affect your performance, but she's fine most of the time, there's no need to worry, Shisui and I will take care of this situation"

"But Obito-sensei what is wro-" Naruto started to speak, but was silenced by a gesture.

"Naruto, I'll be honest, I don't know if I can talk about this with you right now, I have to solve it with the Hokage in first place, but you both need to know that she is fine, I promise we can talk later, but not now, good luck to you two" He said making his way back to Sakura and Shisui, luckily she had calmed down and was better now, he offered her a bottle of water and once she was hydrated, they left the room.

They made their way to the stands, both Jōnin on each side of her, she was guided by them to the seats, she wasn't really paying attention, so when they arrived she finished sitting between Shisui and Obito looking at the arena at safe distance.

"Sakura-chan how have you been?" Was the voice of a woman speaking, she turned to see a very beautiful woman with long, silky black hair, dark eyes, pale skin, pink and thick lips, fine eyebrows and long eyelashes. She was about to answer when her sensei got up and moved to the row where the woman was, Sakura saw curiously the exchange of words between them, Sakura couldn't hear what was said, but saw the expressions of the face of the woman going from initial joy to a troubled face and then one of mortification, once the conversation was over she glared and grinned, beside the gorgeous woman was a man with the same severe look and a look of anger, but somehow she knew it wasn't directed at her, Obito sat beside the woman and continued talking, apparently she was asking questions this time, feeling nosy, The genin turned her eyes to the arena until she felt someone sit gently beside ger, ranking the place that had taken her sensei minutes earlier.

"It's good to see you" Shisui greeted the stranger with a cheery smile "what brings you here?" He asked sarcastically.

"My seat was occupied, so I had to usurp this one, besides I'm pretty sure that my brother is going to participate in this stage, but maybe I'm wrong" replied the newcomer with a cheeky smile, but soft, Sakura noticed him this time, he was tall apparently, she hadn't seen him standing, but she knew for the longitude of his feet and his femur, she could guess that he was a tall person, his hair was long and a dark reddish brown almost black and tied in a low ponytail, his eyes were deep black, his skin was pale but seemed to have a tension lines starting from his eyes to his cheeks, his eyelashes were long and his face had delicate features, but firm and manly at the same time, Sakura figured he must have been about eighteen and definitely an Uchiha.

"Stop being so formal Itachi" admonished suddenly Shisui, the aforementioned noticed her and smiled politely.

"Hello Sakura-san" he greeted.

"Hello, Itachi-san?" She waved back, he stood still for a second and she saw his gaze turned to Shisui, then he looked back to her "Itachi, the older brother of Sasuke and Shisui'a cousin, is nice to meet you Sakura-san" resumed the young man with long hair while holding out a hand at her.

She smiled and shook his hand, was unknown to her that Shisui was smiling gratefully at Itachi behind her.

Soon all the formalities were neglected by the start of the ceremony and later by the first encounter of the exams, which proved to be among the son of the Hokage and the prodigy of the Hyuga. Everyone was in scorching silence when the names were announced, that was one of the most anticipated fights of all. Sakura began to explore the stands and saw two men with serious a look, long brown hair, although the most characteristic feature they shared were their pale pearled eyes and the fact that they were practically identical, beside them was Hinata and a little girl with brown hair. She kept looking and found the Hokage was watching all with a smile as his son stood in front of his opponent.

She wanted Rin to be there, but Obito let her know that Rin was not present in the Chunin exam, because as head of the hospital was her duty to stay there and organize everything for the most serious cases, in which case she must have everything ready because every second counts when it comes to save a life.

The fight between the two was impressive, Naruto had an unpredictable way to fight and was exactly what helped him to defeat the omniscient Byakugan, although the result was well fought between the two opponents.

Then came other enconters that were not as exciting as the first, although they had their share of astonishment, but she really wasn't worried about them, she was waiting for the appearance of her other teammate, she wanted to see what was between them and her, it was a slightly masochistic behavior, but on the she felt that it was necessary for her own personal development and to have a goal, and now she saw them in the arena participating, she realized that she always has been looked at their backs, she wanted to reach them, and for that objective, she had to know how far they were.

When the came Sasuke's turn he was accompanied by another absolute silence, she didn't understand why, she believed it was because of the presence of Sasuke, but that wouldn't explain the silence, it's assumed that Sasuke was a strong ninja, or that was what she thought, but still doesn't explain why everyone was so quiet, if his opponent wasn't as strong as he was, she assumed that the Uchiha would win without ceremony or delay, Itachi noticed this and gently between the general silence, he began to speak to her.

"My little brother is against the sand's Jinchūriki, Suna has struggled with economy and insubordination lately and their incomes have gone wrong, that's why this fight is important, because it can be one that determine which nation is the one that will have the largest number of contracts for missions, economic rise and power among other villages. It is especially important to us as a clan because it also helps us position up the name of our clan among the others in the village and outside it" he explained, Sakura understood then, she knew that Chūnin exams were a friendly event between the hidden villages, but she also knew it was a military show, to display the strengths of the various exponents of each shinobi nation, and also knew it was a strategy to attract customers, besides demonstrate the supremacy of some villages over others, after all almost every village based its economy on income from completed quests. Although that didn't explain what was the word Jinchūriki, she understood that the name meant 'the power of human sacrifice', but didn't know the context of the word.

"what's a Jinchūriki, what does that mean?" she asked

"Has a tailed beast locked inside him Sakura-chan, it was supposed to be a secret at the beginning, but Minato-sama convinced the Kazekage to disclose the information in exchange for a strong alliance between Konoha and Suna. He didn't want the son of the Kazekage grow with hatred and fear surrounding him because he knew it was what his son could have been through" Shisui said.

"What could have happened?" Asked Sakura, she didn't understand what he meant or where he was going with his explanations.

"Naruto is a also a Jinchuriki Sakura-chan" at her look of confusion he supposed he had to give her a short summary "there are nine tailed beasts of great power created a long time ago, I will not lie, I don't know much about it, but some people say that the beasts have a grudge against humanity and are full of anger, to prevent such attacks on villages and to protect innocent people, jinchūriki were created, persons acting as hosts of these powerful spirits. This is done from the time of the first Hokage and the host was changed from one generation to other, to ensure the welfare of the people and villages" summed up her sworn protector "but is also seen as a fortress by other nations as it is believed that whoever that manages to control the power of a beast with tail will be a person with unusual abilities"

"But that doesn't mean that the beasts could hate their hosts? After all they are like human prisons, isn't that dangerous for the person?" She asked this time.

"the truth is that-"

"That's why is called human sacrifice Sakura-san, on the other hand, isn't very plausible because if the host dies, so does the beast. That's why these people are seen as heroes, at least in Suna and Konoha, for the moment I can't assure you that is exactly how it is done or seen in other villages" Itachi attended by completing the missing part. She nodded contemplatively this time.

"So the match is friendly right?" She asked once she had satisfied her curiosity about the previous topic "will mean that Sasuke-kun will be okay right?" She asked worriedly.

"Is said that some beasts, or all, are very violent, but I can assure you that Gaara has been working on it along with Naruto, they are childhood friends, because when Minato-sama or the Kazekage made diplomatic visits they always carried their children so that they could play together or socialize with each other, among with their beasts, Gaara was a bit withdrawn, is a well known fact within two villages" reassured Shisui this time, it left her breathe easyly now. She remembered that boy, he appeared in her hallucination too, but he seemed cold and emotionless, a person definitely dangerous. But she had to remind herself that all about thay world was no longer true, she needed to look forward, not behind.

After that she focused her attention on the match, both opponents were quiet initially, but then Sasuke moved very quickly and soon was before the redhead launching to him tsaijutsu attacks, if she remembered correctly in the illusion there was a boy named Rock Lee, she had seen him in the stands now so she assumed that he was real. That guy tried to defeat Gaara with taijutsu, but failed, so we knew what Sasuke was doing was a waste of time because as she predicted, the sand was blocking all attacks without the user of it was affected.

This continued for a while until the redhead decided to make a move. A great wave of sand shot toward Sasuke, who soon was buried by it. Sakura looked at this with some trepidation, because in the genjutsu, the Suna's boy had caught the leg of Lee causing him to suffer very serious injuries, and now Sasuke was completely buried with lots and lots of sand, but then for general shock and amazement of everyone, Sasuke appeared behind Gaara throwing a kunai toward his head. The sand stopped the weapon before it could reach its destination. The redhead turned around, but instead of being attacked by a physical attack, a genjutsu took power over his body causing the sand around him to move randomly and disorderly, breaking the sand shelter that was wrapping Gaara, while he was covering his head with both arms. But then Sasuke made a sign of hands and labels exploded around Gaara, then Sakura knew, taijutsu was a distraction to approach him without suspicion, thereby planting sealed explosive labels in his Kunai, thus creating an opening in his opponent as the sand moved to cover the damage around the Suna's Jinchūriki. The Uchiha took this opportunity to approah and at one point was behind Gaara with a kunai in his neck and while with the other hand made a sign, thereby causing a second round of explosions to detonate, Sasuke looked up and Sakura saw that his eyes were shiny Sharingan red.

The examiner of the test, Hayate, declared Sasuke as the winner because the Suna boy was under the influence of genjutsu and also, to avoid problems with the beast within Gaara. Althought Sasuke didn't come out unscathed, the sand had left good dose of cuts on his skin

The truth is that Sasuke had known from the beginning that to defeat Gaara, everything would have to be very quick and calculated, which is why he spent a month learning the Tsukuyomi with the help of his older brother, but for that technique he needed a Mangekyō Sharingan, so his brother taught him a derivation of the jutsu, although this also required a lot of chakra, that's why he hadn't used any ninjutsu against the jinchūriki.

The following rounds kept coming after that, after all, the exams would have to determine who would be the winner. Sakura could bet that Naruto and Sasuke were planning to fight in the final round, and they served their purpose.

The fight was terribly long and in the end both finished tied because no one could get up, they used all their resources and Sakura felt awful to see them, they were so far from her, she doubted about be able to catch them up someday, they were good at taijutsu, in ninjutsu and Sasuke was very good with genjutsu thanks to Itachi. They did the opposite to motivate her, she felt more useless than ever in her whole life.

"Hey, here among us, I don't think Sasuke and Naruto will become Chūnin" Shisui said noticing her face "no need to be so sad, tomorrow the three of you will be a team again" he said smiling, she appreciated he was trying to make her feel better, but she knew he was being unrealistic.

"Shisui is right Sakura-san, not only force is required to be a Chūnin, you must prove that you are responsible and careful enough to take the range, thing that both failed to prove. They pushed themselves to exhaustion knowing it wasn't healthy, they didn't stop to think about strategies, they just wanted to show who was the strongest. I think you'll be with them for a while" Itachi smiled gently.

In the end everything turned out to be true, the only promoted to Chūnin was Shikamaru, who in a surprise turn of events, surrendered. She never saw that coming.

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She hadn't slept well at night because she couldn't accept the fact that everything was a complete lie, she wanted to have something stable to hold on, one thing that was still the same, exactly the same. She wanted to wake up.

"Hello Sakura-chan" Naruto shouted when he found her at the meeting point. She gave a nervous smile and waved back. She used to be rude towads Naruto in her genjutsu, but now she didn't know how to relate to him, or how to deal with all the situation, she had checked the day before that not all the things she thought would be the same proved to be so.

"Hello Sakura" greeted Sasuke, she welcomed him back this time without adding the suffix "my mom misses you in the clan" Sasuke said as a casual matter after an awkward moment of silence, that was strange, he usually didn't lead her the word if it wasn't to ask or talk about strategy or mission-related things.

Sakura was about to mumble when was interrupted by Naruto this time.

"Shut up Teme, your family always monopolizes Sakura-chan, I'm part of the team too, Obito-sensei says we should be more united and sakura-chan needs to be with me more often, I mean, my family" replied the blonde with whiskers on his cheeks, "my mom says you should see her, I think she's jealous of Mikoto oba-chan because you go to see her" said Naruto turning his attention to her with a less violent voice, accompanied with a bright smile.

"I do not think that-"

"Hello my dear students" Obito greeted when he arrived at the training camp. Sakura had been taken home by Shisui after the final phase of the exams, with encouraging words told her that next time she would be ready for it and so the three of them could become Chūnin all at once.

"You're late again," the girl's thoughts were interrupted by the shrill voice of Naruto.

"Though, that's why some things came up at last minute, but certainly I want to congratulate you two for the progress in the Chunin exams although you couldn't advance in category" said to avoid further retaliation for his late appearance.

"Will not happen again, next time you all will see me wearing that vest, dattebayo!" Naruto said with complete confidence.

"Shut up Dobe, we both know it will not be possible while I'm your opponent" said the Uchiha smirking.

"what did you just say Teme? We can solve it now, my chakra is complete this time" said the blonde approaching to Sasuke to cope him.

"What you heard, it's also obvious that your chakra is complete, the Kyūbi gives you his chakra all the time" Sasuke replied coldly.

"I'm going to teach you what it feels to be full, full of my blows you fucking bastard" Naruto was going to start a fight, but Obito took him by the ear.

"Now, now, with that attitude neither of you will be Chūnin, don't you think Sakura-chan?" Asked Obito turning his attention to her, the girl seemed strange because normally when that happened she spent her time in a third plane until both finish what they started. The genjutsu didn't look so good now.

"Team, we have to talk" announced their sensei "I don't want to interrupt your official reunion moment, but I talked about this Minato-sensei and he allowed me to share information with you. Sakura-chan was victim of a very powerful genjutsu that made her doubt of her own reality, we are working on that and I'm sure you two can help her to adapt around here again.

Sakura lost some of her memories and some were replaced with others, so may Sakura-chan can't understand everything you are talking about, Sasuke I think it would be good that you understood this, your mother already knows about this situation and Naruto, I think you family can talk about this later, I'm sure that Kushina-san would understand" said the Jōnin "I could bet that someday Sakura-chan will regain all her memories, but if she doesn't, we could help her to regain some old habits" said the man smiling at them "but now we need to go back to business, let's start with resistance, give me a hundred laps around the training camp, then continue with push-ups, crunches and situps" once he said this, there was a general complaint of all the genin, although Sasuke was more discreet about it and he limited only to pucker his lip.

As was to be expected as soon as began the resistance training there was a dispute between Naruto and Sasuke, in short both ended up competing to see who was the one that achieved the goal in first place, according to them, that person would be closer to becoming Chūnin. Despite all that, they did manage to finish faster than her and by far, because when they had finished she was still giving her eighty-three lap around the training camp. So when she had finished they were doing other exercises.

After a moment they finished all the duties imposed by their sensei, at this point she usually stopped, despite the fact that she hadn't fulfiled her goal, his sensei with silver hair didn't really care about that, he just focused on the next point of the training. But it was clear that this wasn't her silver-haired sensei because Obito appeared before her.

"Sakura-chan, now we are four, that doesn't mean I don't pay attention to all of you, I'm always watching you know, despite the fact that I only have an eye to do it, so I suggest you to resume your training and finish your exercise, otherwise you'll continue following after their backs" he said conciliatory, the girl looked at him a while with complete shock.

"how can they do it?" She asked, she wasn't going to lie to herself, despite having been training with Obito and Rin for a month, her resistance wasn't as good as Naruto's who looked fresh new after taking a few breaths, Sasuke's stamina wasn't that good, but he didn't showed be tired.

"Well Naruto has the help of the Kyūbi and Sasuke, his motivation is beat him and prove he's better than him" he said, smiling "I think their rivalry is a good trigger to make them progress and improve with each other, I hope you find yours one day" he added " so now get up, you owe me some squats"

After a rather long time the girl could breathe again normally, but could admit with pride that had been achieved and completed her task for the first time since she had started her training as a ninja, she knew that was probably a lie, but decided it was something that helped her to move on, so she took her time training in the illusion as a true fact, just this once.

But her happiness didn't last long because when she looked up she saw what she had seen in her fantasy world many times, her teammates were fighting each other, now she knew that no matter what she did to stop them because wasn't in her hands, training was over for her so she sat next to a tree and watched the events, she had done the same many times in the past and it was ironic that the only thing that remained exactly the same would be that situation. In the distance she saw Obito commanding some things to help them have a better technique in their attacks, instructed and corrected their postures, taijutsu and ninjutsu and changed the way they were using.

"If you don't want to keep the training you can go home Sakura-chan" said a voice behind her, to her surprise that corresponded to the voice of her sensei.

"But I thought you were teaching the boys" she said with surprise.

"I am sure that the Tobirama-sama invented this jutsu for cases like these, my clone takes care of them while I take care of you, now get up I want you to practice taijutsu on me, I'll teach you to use your height and weight in your favor, I'll demonstrate to you that you don't have to be big to be the strongest."

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"You did it very well, I think if you train a little harder you will completely dominate the water jutsu in a week" congratulated her sensei, but she wanted to do it earlier, a week was a lot of time and she wanted to show him that the training was worthwhile, she was worth his time. It was true that at first she had wanted to be a ninja for whim, but now she saw how the Chunin were she understood that the ninja title wasn't a plaything concept. A ninja was a person who lent its power to protect others and obtained recognition and respect in response.

But there was still something that didn't fit, he could just brush her aside and worry about the people on his team that really had the potential to be a great ninja rather than duplicate himself because she couldn't keep up, after all the person in charge of their training in the alternate reality left her alone in favor of her teammates, he never bothered to help her catch up, he didn't pay any attention to her.

"Why are you still training me sensei?" She asked, unable to take the subject off of her head "want I say is that I'm less than average and I'm just good learning written things, I have nothing special and I feel I'm making you wasting your time" was clearer now that her partners were here, at least in her opinion.

"Don't say that, Rin says you're very good learning medical ninjutsu" he said sincerely, but for the ears of the depressed girl seemed that he alone was making her feel better, once more.

"Don't think about it, forget it, I think I'm just thinking too much," she said, rising from the ground, she hated feeling weak though she knew she was, but especially hated not being able to respect even the ninja code, it's assumed that a ninja doesn't show emotions, and clearly she was showing her emotions skin deep, as always.

"I'll tell you something" he said patting the ground beside him, she came and sat "you'll see, this is something that I haven't told to many people because it's not a memory of which I'm proud, I feel guilty about this everyday" he said taking a long breath "when I was younger, around your age, but a little bit older, my team was similar to ours" Sakura looked at him, she liked when he included himself in their team, some Jōnin sensei didn't because just wanted to rank up their subordinates to get rid of them "but my attitude was different, and behavior too" he paused, as if he was thinking or seeing something she couldn't "but that's not a topic for today, I don't want to talk about that" he smiled trying to cheer up the ambient, that was the first time that Sakura saw on his face a sad and broken smile.

"The thing is, Naruto and Sasuke were exactly like my fellow teammate and I, we were always quarreling, a rivalry to see who was better than the other, this was always the case with us, we never stopped and that caused our other teammate to move to a second, and sometimes even a third plane. That teammate was Rin, my current wife" he smiled and this time a little happier "But due that we were always fighting and because Rin was only nourished by medical ninjutsu and the general training, she was considerably weaker than us" he took a pause this time "When we were a team there was a war going on simultaneously, so Minato-sensei dismissed Rin a little in favor to us, to forge warriors to help in the war and incidentally not to die trying, hoping Rin to stay in the medical field because Tsunade-sama established once that the medic nin should stay off the battlefield if it was possible because it was the one who had the duty to keep the rest of the team alive" he said.

"the thing is, one day we had to go on a mission and needed a medic nin to heal us if the things got complicated, which in this case happened to be Rin because there was a shortage of healers"

"I've been in love with her for some quite some time, since before officially we were named as a team" he said laughing "your sensei is very cheesy Sakura-chan" he joked lightly "the thing is, we separated from our sensei that day because he had to deal with something bigger, but things didn't go well for us, Rin was kidnapped" he was now completely serious and had a remorse look in his eyes "we saved her by little, but..." he paused a long time and brought his hand to his face, rubbing his eyes "the thing is that I don't want to not make the same mistake Sakura-chan, I will not do it, she couldn't defend herself, if she could, much could been avoided, but she couldn't and now I can't live without repentance" his visible eye was a little red now, she suspected that there might be much more than he wasn't telling "I was afraid that day, if Rin had died I... I don't know what would have been of me, I doubt that would have been the same that I am now, and I don't really think I want to know someday what could have happened" he said looking into her eyes with a determined look and then smiled "it's time for you to go with Rin, I'm sure you will resurrect the fish or whatever you do with the poor victim" he laughed, but it sounded forced, she nodded because she understood that it was difficult for him to tell something like that.

"Thanks for everything, the confidence and for trying to train me" she said when she was halfway up.

"sure, now go, good luck"

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Sakura was walking home and decided to take the long way to think about what had told her the Jōnin earlier that day, besides the fact that she had finally managed to revive the fish and successfully cure all its wounds. She hadn't wanted to broach the subject with Rin-sensei, not at the moment because she wanted to solve some things before, and was sure that the conversation with Obito would be a delicate topic for her female sensei too.

She took the way of the training camps, watching her steps when suddenly heard a noise, she approached carefully to see what it was and then saw him.

Sasuke was on the floor breathing heavily and sweating profusely, she approached him to see if she could offer him help.

"Are you okay?" She asked carefully, still felt strange when she interacted with them, especially with Sasuke, the guy she was sure was the love of her life, the boy she was in love since she could remember. But no longer know how to feel about it or about him, she didn't know this Sasuke and apparently he didn't know how to address her either.

"Hn" he replied as he struggled to steady his breathing.

"Why do you train at this time? It's getting late" She asked stupidly, she knew the answer to that, but the silence was uncomfortable.

"To improve, I have to get stronger" he said still agitated, but started to get up slowly picking up his weapons, she thought he would stop, but to her surprise he began to throw them at some targets hidden in the darkness of the night.

"Sasuke mustn't make an effort in that proportion, is dangerous" she said worried.

"Don't bother me" he growled, she wasn't about to let him harming himself, so she approached to him.

"You don't have to do this, you're strong enough" the girl tried to persuade.

"yes I have, you don't know anything, isn't enough, it will never be enough!" He shouted, this time facing her with red sharingan, she stepped back.

"I.." she was trying to excuse herself to get out of there, but coiuldn't say anything more, so she turned around and started walking awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I'm just upset with myself. Thanks for worrying about me" he said, she turned around, she was surprised by that, this Sasuke was definitely humbler than the one she used to know.

"We are teammates, is what we have to do" she said lamely.

"Yes, I guess that's what we have to do" he said in agreement.

"Goodbye, please take care of yourself" she said before leaving.

"you too, I hope you feel better in the future" he said, the interction was clumsy so they parted and went in opposite directions, after all Sakura lived where the civilian population was concentrated, although Konoha was characterized by its mixed system, shinobi and all civilians lived without segregations around the village.

When she got home Sakura smiled, she had found new motivation. She went to the backyard and began training, someday they'll be a strong team, the three of them.

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 **A/N:**

I apologize for the mistakes, I'm sleepy


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